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The Competitive Intelligence Slope of Enlightenment

“Some thoughts after 2 decades of Competitive Intelligence practice.”  When I joined the Competitive Leadership Team at Cisco back in 2001, we didn’t know what the heck we were doing. We were created by the executive leadership during the financial downturn of the 2000/2001 era. We were given a task, but not a methodology. And…

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10 Steps to creating a new CI program

The real challenge in building an effective CI program is not in the intelligence itself, but the structure and organization of the program. Many people make the mistake of starting with a focus on their intelligence gathering and analysis projects, rather than on addressing how the program is going to run. Check out the CompeteIQ…

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Trends in Competitive Intelligence Driving Change

A look back at some past and present drivers of competitive intelligence practices. Salesforce’s third edition of their State of Sales report tells us that ‘66% of high performing sales teams believe that AI will transform or substantially impact opportunity insights including competitor involvement within five years’. But even though CI today is included in…

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Proving Competitive Intelligence ROI

How do you prove the value of your company’s competitive intelligence program? If you’re like many analysts and CI managers, you most likely fall under one of the following categories: And maybe you can’t answer these questions: Professionals have been trying to uncover the value for decades, one of the first published guides on proving CI…

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CompeteiQ: Guide Sales with the Right Information

Here’s how to make sure sales have the right information at the right time. You know the old saying about trying to sell ice to Eskimos? While we all know the meaning behind the adage and the lessons should learn from it as a consequence, it still happens all the time. And you may have…

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What is Competitive Intelligence?

Here’s how you can use CI to close doors on the competition. What’s the first thing you do before trying out a new restaurant? Or before booking a holiday? Or (let’s go bigger), buying a new house? If you’re like most of us, you probably do a bit of research. In a recent webinar, MarketMuse…

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Sales Teams Should Power Competitive Intelligence

With sales teams on the front lines, they should be empowered to gather competitive intelligence.  It’s easy to see how salespeople can benefit from having useful competitive intelligence (CI). What is not commonly recognized, though, is that CI teams are also more effective when they are closely allied with their sales teams. For instance, salespeople…

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How to Design and Measure Battle Cards that Work

Competitive reporting

Battle cards are one of those competitive intelligence tools that once you start using them, you won’t do without them again. Key takeouts: A battle card system that is designed correctly and continuously measured and optimised can and should be your secret weapon in any competitive sales situation. Effective battle card design is all about…

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Sales Enablement with Competitive Intelligence

While there is no one-size-fits-all approach for what constitutes competitive intelligence, here’s a good place to start. In our combined years of working in the CI field, we’ve found that analysts were spending a lot of time responding to sales teams who needed “critical” help to win competitive sales deals. If you are a CI…

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4 Ways to Improve Competitive Sales and Win Rates

With the ever-increasing rise of competitors facing companies today, every sales deal is a competitive sales engagement.  Key takeouts: Prepare your sales teams for any competitive engagement by makng the information they need to stand out readily available and consistent. Make it easy for your team by ensuring that the process of collecting, sharing and…

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